Turf Zone – DynamicEarth
Edinburgh today, hunting a few more isolated unique zones, mostly to the east of the city between Holyrood Park and Portobello. I had my sights set on the 10 uniques I wanted, to clear the area of reds, in other words, not have any red zones in a sea of white taken zones. I got my 10 uniques and even while trying not to take too many other zones, I ended up with 61 takes. Funny how the numbers creep up on you without you noticing.
Used the Harley Quinn single speed today, cycling from Bonnyrigg out to Niddrie, then across to Holyrood Park, then worked my way towards Portobello, about 20 or so miles in all. Hard going on the single speed but nice to feel I’ve had some good exercise. Just the 10 uniques but all widely spaced across the area. I suspect many, if not all of them, have been added since I first turfed these parts of Edinburgh for uniques.
I must say I’m loving riding the single speed. Not once have I missed having gears. One thing I didn’t quite expect was the attention the paint job on Harley Quinn would get. It will take some getting used to having attractive ladies waving at me and then crossing the street to ask about the bike or say how much they love the paintwork. Some even ask to take a photograph, which, of course, I am happy to oblige.
One thing I will not miss are the poor condition of many of the streets in Edinburgh, swarms of potholes and even a few missing drain gullies. And then there’s some of the so-called cycle routes. Some little more than a faded white line painted along the edge of the carriageway and a magnet for broken glass, take-away litter, window-chucked e-cig paraphernalia and at one location, one of the strangest things you might find by the roadside, a dead chicken, albeit a frozen one from Asda. And don’t get me started about the cobbles! But on the bright side, one lorry driver apologised for parking on the cycleway. What a nice man.
Still have one unique zone left to take and that’s zone HolyroodAbbey but I did get the alternative zone, ForCheapScots, which I suspect, was named by someone other than a Scotsman but I may be wrong. Okay, it might be a joke but I don’t find it very funny. I will happily pay the £19.50 one day but will do a proper touristy visit with Cathryn, a.k.a ChoccyMuffin. Mind you, once you’ve seen one big posh royal palace you’ve seen them all. They do all tend to look the same. Back again soon.
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